- Interior minister says mutual distrust, blame-game to strengthen non-state actors
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Wednesday said that the goal of ensuring durable peace, lasting stability and continued development would remain elusive till the regional powers, aided by international community, worked hand in hand for overcoming shared challenges and mutual issues.
He was speaking at the closing session of a two-day Pak-UK international seminar on sharing experiences in stabilisation and peace efforts here at the National Defence University. He said that the mutual distrust and blame-games would only lead to strengthening of non-state actors and those, who wanted to sabotage peace for their ulterior motives.
The minister said that the international community must realise that the policy to remain indifferent to the longstanding regional issues and to intervene only when it suits or for the short-term goals had taken them nowhere. The international community must come out of Islamophobia, he said.
“I feel humiliated when my religion is targeted and is equated with terrorism,” he said. He said that 1.2 billion Muslims were in fact the worst sufferers and victims of terrorism. The international community must differentiate between terrorism and freedom movements, he added. Nisar said that Pakistan had paid the heaviest cost in the efforts to secure peace within and peace without.
“Our sacrifices for promoting peace and stability are manifestation of our commitment and exceed any other nation or country but unfortunately except for the few friendly countries. The international community influenced by our foes, has remained insensitive to our issues and the threats that we face both inside and on our borders.”
He said that Pakistan had faced the brunt of regional security discrepancies for last many decades. “We have single handedly faced post-conflict situation of rival ideologies and more recently the fight against terrorism,” he said. Despite paying huge economic as well as human toll, he said that Pakistan had managed to remain resilient with the participation of its people, government and armed forces in the process of dealing with the ramifications of the war against terrorism.
“We are a nation with an extraordinary zeal to fight the elements of instability that not only threaten the peace of the country but also of the region,” he said. In the present day global world, security was a multi-dimensional and multi-faceted issue, he said. The interior minister said that the internal and external factors had added further complexities to the overall security paradigm.
“You cannot have peace while fanning unrest in the neighbouring country or spilling blood of those innocent, who demand their inalienable rights,” he remarked. Similarly, the tendency to play as tool into others’ hands was also counter-productive in the efforts to promote regional peace and stability, he said. “Unfortunately, some countries blame Pakistan for everything even for their own weaknesses,” he observed.
Today, regional dimension of terrorism embodied complex dynamics and complicated networking systems, requiring comprehensive and smart solutions. That necessitated the coupling of national and regional approaches to counter this menace, he said, adding that despite an unprecedented international effort to militarily subdue terrorism, no lasting solution might be in sight if collective efforts were not instigated.
The minister said that Pakistan had faced a situation when five to six bomb blasts and terrorist acts were quite common in the country. The government as a policy first exhausted the dialogue option before launching a full-scale military offensive against the terrorists, he added. After Zarb-i-Azb, Rad-ul-Fassad operation had been launched to wipe out the terrorists and their facilitators and sympathisers, he said.
The minister said that Pakistan had achieved great successes in the fight against terrorism. Compared with the international trends, the graph of terrorism in the country had drastically come down as a result of efforts by the armed forces, police and other law enforcing agencies. He observed that the military power was a short term measure that needed to be complemented with a robust administrative structure that not only catered to the socio-economic needs of the people but also ensured that the tendencies towards extremism were immediately checked and instantly countered.
The minister said that this called for greater cooperation and collaboration at international level with mutual sharing of expertise and knowledge. “The choices before us are clear; either we can stay mired in a situation of mutual mistrust and hostility or make serious efforts to resolve disputes and differences through sustained dialogue and learn from our experiences,” he said.
He congratulated the participants of the seminar and expressed that hope that the various deliberations during the seminar would have contributed positively towards developing greater and clear understanding of the issues and would result in greater cooperation among all stakeholders for the cause of peace and stability.
